A wise woman once said that MIT’s greatest invention was itself. She was talking about the Institute’s methodology for solving problems: cross disciplinary, ambitious, and democratic—because in the Institute’s labs and classrooms, good ideas can come as easily from a student as a professor.
Think about the enormous civilizational challenges the world faces. How will we double food and energy production for the 9.6 billion people who will live on the planet by 2050? How will we provide those people universal health care, education, or meaningful employment? MIT does not have all the solutions, but its methodology may be a way forward.
Solve is an attempt to introduce the world to the MIT method. The movement kicks off October 5–8, 2015, on the MIT campus, when the Institute convenes a diverse group of technologists, researchers, policy makers, and activists who want to work on the world’s toughest problems. They will begin, through roundtable discussions and workshops, by seeking together to understand the complex challenges within the four “pillars” of Solve (see below). Underlying the litany of questions are two key factors: population growth and climate change. Grappling with those shifts is a prerequisite for progress on any problem faced by humanity in the 21st century.
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Solve is produced by MIT Technology Review, but is an effort of the Office of the President of MIT, in collaboration with distinguished members of the faculty, who will curate its pillars. President Reif said it best: “We will do more than talk about the greatest problems facing our world. We will set the course to solve them.”